Franklin Square photo

Franklin, Tennessee. // Population 81,000

Modeling Inclusion In a Musical Hot Spot

Fifteen miles south of Nashville, Franklin has forged a new path in reckoning with racial justice. After the white nationalist rally in Charlottsville, Virginia, in 2017, and the following call for tearing down Confederate statues, Franklin activists mounted a different response, funding the creation of a life-size bronze of a U.S. Colored Troops soldier. Unveiled last fall outside the courthouse where Black volunteers signed up to fight, it faces the town’s Confederate monument. Five more historical markers share the history of the town’s slave market, race riots, and more.

Excerpt from AFAR online at: https://www-afar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.afar.com/magazine/small-cities-us-visit-right-now?_amp=true